Liquidator

GOV.UK's director-facing guidance describes the liquidator as "an authorised insolvency practitioner or official receiver who runs the liquidation process", and confirms that "as soon as the liquidator is appointed, they'll take control of the business". From that point the liquidator, not the directors, runs the company's affairs: the guidance lists the liquidator's practical tasks as settling legal disputes and outstanding contracts, selling off the company's assets and using the proceeds to pay creditors, meeting statutory paperwork deadlines and keeping the relevant authorities informed, paying the liquidation costs and the final VAT bill, keeping creditors informed and involving them in decisions where necessary, making payments to creditors, interviewing the directors and reporting on what went wrong in the business, and ultimately getting the company removed from the companies register.

The liquidator's loyalties shift depending on the type of liquidation. GOV.UK's guidance is explicit that "in a creditors' voluntary liquidation, the liquidator acts in the interest of the creditors not the directors" — a distinction that matters because the liquidator also has an investigative function, reporting on the directors' conduct and on what caused the company's failure, which can in turn feed into director disqualification proceedings. On the director's side, the reciprocal obligation is co-operation: separate GOV.UK guidance for directors facing compulsory liquidation confirms that once liquidation starts, a director's own powers cease, but "you must fully co-operate with the liquidator", reflecting the liquidator's statutory function of collecting in the company's assets and records and dealing with its affairs on behalf of the creditors as a whole.